The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Converting and printing machinery may include winders and unwinders. In a winder, an incoming web of material is wound onto a roll until the roll is filled. In an unwinder, a roll feeds an outgoing web of material. During unwinding, when a feeding roll is depleted or near depletion, a filled roll may replace the depleted roll and continue feeding the outgoing web material. Filled rolls of web material, such as for example newsprint, are typically large and heavy, weighing as much as several tons. Difficulties can arise with the transfer of the feeding source from one roll to the next.
It is common to splice the trailing edge of the depleted roll of material to the leading edge of the next roll of material to allow for generally continuous operation of the converting process. This splicing can be performed in various ways. A basic splicing technique involves stopping the converting machine or equipment, replacing the expired roll of material with a new roll of material, attaching the leading edge of the new roll of material to a trailing edge of the previous run roll of material, and restarting the machine. However, stopping and starting the machine can lead to excessive lost production time and other issues.
Other splicing methods aim to avoid stopping production. For example, an accumulator, festoon, or J-box may be arranged between the feeding roll and the remainder of the converting machine or equipment, such that material passes through the accumulator, festoon, or J-box. The accumulator, festoon, or J-box may have a plurality of rollers about which the material is passed before being fed to the remainder of the converting machine or equipment. The accumulator, festoon, or J-box is used to feed the converting machine or equipment while the feeding roll is stopped independent of the remainder of the converting machine or equipment, changed, and the material spliced. This method has various drawbacks, however. For example, the use of an accumulator, festoon, or J-box may require additional space, may increase the number of rollers that the web material contacts, which can lead to damage or wear of the material, and the material may be difficult to control within the accumulator, festoon, or J-box. Moreover, this method may be impractical for some higher speed processes, due to the size of accumulator, festoon, or J-box needed to continue supplying material at production speed while the feeding roll is changed.